Wednesday Final Nationals: Cubs’ Historic World Series Game 7 Victory on Fox is Most-Watched Baseball Game in 25 Years

The Chicago Cubs finally overcame a 108-year world championship drought to win the World Series on Wednesday night as Major League Baseball and its broadcast network partner Fox reaped huge rewards with milestone ratings for its instant classic Game 7 of the “2016 World Series.”

At 40.045 million viewers, the Chicago Cubs’ 8-7 win over the Cleveland Indians in 10 innings drew the largest audience for a baseball game in 25 years — since 1991 World Series Game 7: Minnesota at Atlanta on CBS (50.3 million on 10/27/91) and and ranks as the most-watched baseball telecast in Fox Sports’ history.

With a 21.8 U.S. household rating, Game 7 is the highest-rated baseball game in 15 years — since 2001 World Series Game 7: N.Y. Yankees at Arizona on Fox (23.5 rating on 11/04/01).

Compared to World Series Game 7 in 2014 between the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals, Wednesday night’s game showed a +70 percent gain on average audience (40.0 million vs. 23.5 million) and a +58 percent increase in household rating (vs. 13.7/22).
 
As the intensity and drama grew throughout the deciding, winner-take-all contest, so too did the audience, peaking with a 27.1/48 household rating with 49.9 million viewers between 11:30 PM – 11:45 PM ET.
 
World Series Game 7 on Wednesday night also outperformed 2014’s Game 7 by a wide margin in all of the key male demographics, including males 12-17 (+83 percent; 7.7 vs. 4.2), males 18-34 (+81 percent; 12.5 vs. 6.9), males 18-49 (+75 percent; 14.9 vs. 8.5), and males 25-54 (+72 percent; 16.7 vs. 9.7). In adults 18-49, Game 7 is up +91 percent compared to 2014 (12.6 vs. 6.6).
 
Chicago led all markets by delivering a massive 51.2/71 overnight rating/share, its best rating for an MLB telecast on record (and the best rating thus far in the 21st century for a World Series clinching game in a two-team market), while the Cleveland market posted a remarkable 48.6/69.

Wednesday night’s Game 7 on Fox Deportes averaged 565,000 viewers, the most-watched baseball game and most-watched non-soccer sporting event in Spanish language sports network history. That figures also marks a +51 percent increase over World Series Game 7 in 2014 (vs. 373,000 viewers).

On the digital front, Fox Sports GO added an average minute audience of 343,865 viewers for last night’s telecast, according to Adobe Analytics, a new record average minute audience for an authenticated event.  

The entire 7-game Series averaged 23.4 million viewers and a 13.1/23 rating/share, marking 2016 as the top Series (on average) since 2004 (Boston-St. Louis: 25.4 million, 15.8/26).

(Source: Fox Sports [1], [2])

Opposite Game 7 was the “50th Annual CMA Awards” averaged a decent 12.495 million viewers, down just 8 percent from the year-ago CMAs (13.62 million on 11/04/15).

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* AFF = Number of affiliates (stations) airing the program
* CVG = percent of coverage in U.S.
	Wednesday, October 26, 2016
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			7.6/12	12495	2.1/7	2.9/9	3.8/9
8:00	50th Annual CMA Awards (s) (thru 11:22)	249	94	7.6/12	12495	2.0/7	2.9/8	3.7/9
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			3.4/5	5208	0.6/2	1.0/3	1.5/4
8:00	Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X	255	94	4.2/7	6932	0.9/4	1.6/5	2.2/6
9:00	Criminal Minds (r)	255	94	2.8/4	4242	0.5/2	0.8/2	1.1/3
10:00	Code Black	255	94	3.0/5	4451	0.4/1	0.7/2	1.1/3
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			2.2/3	3223	0.5/2	0.7/2	0.9/2
8:00	Law & Order: SVU (r)	242	94	2.1/3	3089	0.4/2	0.6/2	0.8/2
9:00	Law & Order: SVU (r)	242	94	2.3/4	3382	0.6/2	0.8/2	1.0/2
10:00	Chicago PD (r)	242	94	2.1/4	3198	0.4/1	0.7/2	0.9/2
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			20.2/33	37240		11.2/35	12.9/34
7:00	World Series Pre-Game (s)	252	94	3.5/7	5699	1.3/8	1.6/8	2.0/8
7:58	2016 MLB World Series Game 7 Chicago Cubs @ Cleveland Indians (s) (thru 12:31am)	252	94	21.8/37	40045	10.5/40	12.6/39	14.3/39
	PROGRAM	AFF*	CVG* (PCT)	HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			0.8/1	1258	0.3/1	0.4/1	0.5/1
8:00	Arrow	247	91	1.1/2	1612	0.5/2	0.6/2	0.7/2
9:00	Frequency	247	91	0.6/1	905	0.2/1	0.3/1	0.3/1
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.0/2	1687		0.6/2
7:00	La Rosa de Guadalupe			0.8/1	1455		0.6/2
8:00	Despertar Contigo			0.8/1	1510		0.5/2
9:00	Vino el Amor			1.1/2	1870		0.6/2
10:00	El Color de la Pasión			1.0/2	1682		0.6/2
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			0.2/0	336		0.1/0
7:00	Mi Corazon es Tuyo			0.2/0	349		0.1/1
8:00	Moisés y Los Diez Mandamientos			0.3/1	585		0.2/1
9:00	La Viuda Negra			0.1/0	255		0.1/0
10:00	Bloque de Búsqueda			0.1/0	167		0.1/0
	PROGRAM			HH/Share	Viewers (000)	Adults 18-34	Adults 18-49	Adults 25-54
8-11	Network Average			1.0/2	1730		0.7/2
7:00	Caso Cerrado: Edición Estelar			1.0/2	1685		0.4/2
8:00	Silvana Sin Lana			0.8/1	1240		0.5/1
9:00	Sin Senos Sí Hay Paraíso			1.0/2	1831		0.7/2
10:00	Señora Acero 3: La Coyote			1.1/2	2119		0.9/3

Sub-Demo Breakdowns – Wednesday 11/02/16

Source: Live+Same Day data, Nielsen Media Research